Clay County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low

Clay County sits in north-central Texas on the Red River plain, about 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth. With roughly 5,056 residents and a renter share near 19%, the county's rental market is small and tightly knit -- most landlords here know their tenants personally, and the courthouse in Henrietta handles a modest docket compared to the metro areas to the south. The Eviction Risk Map research team scores Clay County at 2.3/10 (Very Low), placing it at 168th of 254 Texas counties, a position in the middle third of the state ranking. That means 167 counties carry higher risk scores and 86 carry lower ones. The numbers suggest this is a workable environment for landlords who follow the rules, though the state's landlord-side legal framework still demands careful attention to timing and paperwork.

City-level scores across the county's six communities span from 1.9 to 2.7/10, a spread that reflects real differences in local housing stress. Bellevue, the county's highest-risk community, scores 2.7/10 -- the only city here that nudges toward the upper end of the county range. Henrietta, the county seat and by far the largest community at 3,167 residents, scores 2.3/10 -- right at the county average and the practical center of gravity for any landlord operating in Clay County. Byers (2.3/10) tracks similarly. Dean (2.2/10) and Petrolia (2/10) come in a bit lower, while Jolly at 1.9/10 is the county's lowest-risk market. None of these communities has local rent control -- Texas state law under TX Local Gov Code §214.902 preempts any municipal attempt to impose it -- so landlords here deal exclusively with state statute and the Justice of the Peace court system.

From an operational standpoint, Texas Prop. Code § 24.005 gives landlords one of the shortest statutory notice periods in the country: a 3-day written notice to vacate covers non-payment, lease violations, and holdover situations alike. Squatters and unauthorized occupants can be addressed with no notice at all under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011 (as amended by SB-38). Justice of the Peace court filing fees in Clay County run $54 to $125. If the constable or sheriff needs to execute a writ of possession, lockout fees typically fall between $50 and $175. Uncontested cases generally resolve in 21 to 30 days; contested matters can stretch 45 to 90 days. Attorney fees, should you retain counsel, typically range from $500 to $3,500 depending on complexity. Texas does not require just cause for eviction and does not protect source of income as a fair-housing category -- the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division enforces state fair housing but does not add protected classes beyond federal law in these respects. The habitability baseline is set at Tex. Prop. Code § 92.052, and retaliation against tenants for good-faith repair requests is prohibited under § 92.331. Landlords who document conditions carefully and serve notices correctly tend to move through the JP court system without prolonged delay.

Clay County's average rent of $831 per month is well below the Texas eviction laws statewide average, yet a rent burden of 39.9% indicates that a meaningful share of renters here are spending close to two-fifths of their income on housing -- a dynamic that can elevate late-payment risk even in low-score markets. The 13% poverty rate and the relatively thin renter population (about 1 in 5 households) mean that vacancy turnover events, when they occur, can feel outsized in a small-county context. Landlords with even a single vacant unit in Henrietta or Petrolia feel the economics differently than a portfolio operator in a larger Texas city.